10/02/2009 @ 12:00PM

Revolutionaries

Shoe baron ran track for U. of Oregon, teamed up with coach to create Blue Ribbon Sports 1964; sold Japanese shoes from car. Later renamed Nike, after Greek goddess of victory. Sales: $19.2 billion, largest sports footwear, apparel company in the world. Owns 20% of company’s shares after selling off $1 billion in stock last year. Remaining hoard worth $6 billion; shares up 50% from March lows. Reaping benefits from 2008 Beijing Olympics sponsorship deal; Asian revenue grew 15% during past year, U.S. only 2%. Cut 5% of workforce in May; net income still fell 20% during fiscal 2009. Famous for superstar endorsers: Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods. Gave $100 million to U. of Oregon’s athletic department in 2007.

Jeffrey Bezos $8.8 bil Amazon. Seattle. 45.

Lord of the world’s largest online bookshop now working furiously to make printed tomes–and perhaps anything else you can read on paper–obsolete. Launched Amazon’s Kindle digital book reader 2007; sold out in 5.5 hours, remained out of stock for 5 months. Debuted Kindle 2 in February; device can hold more than 1,500 books, each downloadable for $9.99 or less. Color Kindle still years away. Stock up 125% from November lows; revenue, earnings each up more than 30% in past year. Annual sales now exceed $19 billion. Acquired online shoe retailer Zappos in July for $800 million in stock. Former Wall Streeter quit hedge funds before 30th birthday to sell books online from Seattle garage.
Amazon.com
founded 1994, public 3 years later; didn’t see first profit until late 2001.

Steve Jobs $5.1 bil
Apple
,
Disney
. Palo Alto, Calif. 54.

Cultish king of the iGeeks recently returned to Apple after undergoing a liver transplant this spring; made first public appearance in September looking gaunt at an event debuting improved iPods. In January blamed hormone imbalance for rapid weight loss; suspiciously took medical leave soon after. Shares flat since last August but up 100% since January on continued rumors and releases of new and updated products and Jobs’ return. Reed College dropout founded Apple in 1976. Revolutionized music industry with iTunes, iPod. More than 50 million iPhones could be sold in 2011. Industry whispers suggest company will release a touch-screen computer without a keyboard by early 2010. Best investment: bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986 for $10 million; created string of hits (Finding Nemo, Toy Story). Sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock. Today is Disney’s largest shareholder; stake worth $3.9 billion.

Darth Vader is now musical theater: Star Wars: In Concert touring America. Still a retail force; Star Wars Legos a top seller in 2008. Total merchandise receipts from franchise since 1977: $17.5 billion. Studied film at U. of Southern California. Founded Industrial Light & Magic in 1975 to create effects for original Star Wars film; now Hollywood’s most bankable special effects shop. Executive produced fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise last year; despite tepid reviews, film grossed $782 million in worldwide box office.

Sunglasses maven hawked motorcycle grips from car trunk 1975. Moved to eyewear 1983; built brand enticing hotshot athletes to sport his trendy Oakley sunglasses. Took “The O” public 1995. Focused on cutting-edge optics technology; some Oakley glasses can withstand a shotgun blast. Sold company to Italian rival
Luxottica
for $2.1 billion in 2007. Today spends time focused on Red Digital HD camera company. Outfit the first to offer “affordable” high-definition digital cinema cameras to the masses; Red One camera sells for $17,500. Cameras used on movie sets by A-list directors, including Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven).

Steve Wynn $2.3 bil Casinos. Las Vegas. 67.

Tough year for king of Las Vegas. Shares of
Wynn Resorts
fell 80% between last August and March as gamblers stayed home in America and Asia; up 300% since as investors take on more risk. Opened $2.3 billion Encore casino in Sin City next to his $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas in December; says he wishes he hadn’t had to open during an economic downturn. Trying to avoid layoffs; slashing pay and hours, bonuses and 401(k) match. Bid on Queens Aqueduct redevelopment; wants to build New York City casino and race track. Divorcing wife, Elaine; sold $100 million worth of shares in August, proceeds to be used as part of settlement.

Youngest member of The Forbes 400 guiding addictive social networking site Facebook through slumping online ad market. Netscape founder and Facebook director Marc Andreessen claims site will top $500 million in revenue in 2009; firm became “cash-flow positive” this year. Fresh-faced entrepreneur launched Facebook from Harvard dorm room in 2004. Left school for Silicon Valley later that year; bagged initial $500,000 investment from PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. In May Russian investment firm Digital Sky agreed to buy stock from Facebook employees; price valued company at $6.5 billion. Growing rapidly: user base has tripled to 300 million since last fall.

Robert E. (Ted) Turner $1.8 Bil Cable television. Lamont, Fla. 70.

Cable news pioneer is the largest individual landowner in North America; owns 2 million acres of land across 12 states and Argentina. Sent to boarding school at age 4; went to work for Turner Advertising. Boss: alcoholic father who committed suicide in 1963. Created 24-hour news by starting CNN in 1980. Merged Turner Broadcasting with
Time Warner
in 1996; became AOL Time Warner’s largest individual shareholder after combining the 2 companies in 2000. Shares promptly collapsed; personally lost $7 billion in 2 years. Sold stake, retired from board in 2006. Has donated more than $1.5 billion to charity, including the United Nations Foundation. Invests in renewable energy. Keeps 50,000 bison; bison burgers on the menu at Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants. Skilled sailor won America’s Cup in 1977.